Playing-card puzzle



No. 6l8,942. Patented Feb. 7, I899.

M. JOHNSON.

PLAYING CARD PUZZLE.

(Applicatjon filed Oct. 25, 1898.)

(No Model.)

Fly 2 JV?! DEWEY W 2 -$cHLEY W 3 SHAFTE'R W 4 Hanson 1V snmpsow JV 6 CLARK W 7 Jiassze W 9 wniuwmam A 10 MI'LEs .Nflii WHEELER W 12 EVA N-S W 13 Roossvsur Witnesses UNITED STATES PATENT ()EEICE.

MITCHEL JOHNSON, OF KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI.

PLAYING-CARD PUZZLE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 618,942, dated February 7;1899.

Application filed October 25, 1893- Serial N0.'694,563. (N0 model.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, MITCHEL JOHNSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Kansas City, in the county of Jackson and State of Missouri, have invented a certain new and useful Playing-Card Puzzle; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact specification thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification.

My invention has for its object a pack of cards or a series of objects, each card having a suitable inscription or subject-word, the prior and accurate combination of which inscriptions or subject-words in a pack is to be found from a subject-card having a list of subjects corresponding with the cards in the pack and a diagram or key in such a manner that when the cards are subsequently played by any person alone or in a game and in dealin g the cards from the upper to the lower side of the pack as each letter is pronounced in each word will enable the same card to be played as called for bythe subject-card and in like order.

The invention will be first fully described, and specifically pointed out in the claims.

Figure 1 represents the separate cards in the pack with the subjects thereon and com-.

bined in the order resulting from the employment of the diagram or key. Fig.2 represents the subject-card with the full list of the subjects displayed upon the respective cards. Fig. 3 represents a card showing a key or diagram from which the combination of the subjects as in Fig. 1 is obtained.

A sufficient number of cards, each corresponding in size to an ordinary playing-card, are employed to form the pack. In this instance I have selected thirteen cards, as shown in Fig. 1, and numbered each card in the pack upon its face and in consecutive order, beginning with the numeral 1, which is printed upon the firstcard, and so on, the last card in the pack receiving the number 13. Upon the face of the first card is printed the name Dewey, the second Schley, the third Shafter, the fourth Hobson, the fifth Sampson, the sixth Clark, the seventh Sigsbee, the eighth Watson, the ninth Wainwright, the tenth Miles, the eleventh Wheeler, the twelfth Evans, and the thirteenth Roosevelt. I prefer to have each subject on the cards illustrated, as shown, to represent Schley in the drawing on card No. 2; but this is not necessary, the names alone being sufficient to illustrate the invention;

Upon a separate card or paper A is printed a list of the subjects borne upon the cards in the pack, with its accompanyingnumeral and in numerical order, as in Fig. 2, this card forming the subject-card in the pack. Upon another card 13 are made thirteen horizontal so that the combination of the cards and re spective subjects when the list has been completed shall stand in the order as seen in Fig. 1. In order to obtain this result, take the diagram B and the subject-card A and, beginning with the first horizontal line at the top of card B, count the lines successively as the letters are pronounced in the word Dewey. There being five letters inthe name, upon the sixth line make a cross-mark upon the dash and place the numeral 1',

-which indicates the position of the subjectcard bearing the subject-name Dewey. Next count the six lines following the line indicated by the numeral 1 and opposite the seventh line, which is the thirteenth on the card, cross the dash and place the numeral 2, which indicates the subject Schley. Beginning at the first line at the top, continue to count seven lines as the letters are pronounced in the word Shatter, not counting the line having the numeral 1, and opposite the eighth line make a cross-mark upon the dash and place opposite the line the numeral '3. Continue from the said line indicated by the numeral 3 and count as many lines as there are letters in the word Hobson, excluding the line at the bottom marked 2, and carrying the three lines and beginning at the top of the column the third line down equals the number of letters in the name Hobson. The dash on the next line will then be crossed and the numeral at placed opposite. The next word being Sampson, the lines following will be counted, excluding thelines indicated by the numerals 1, 3, and 2. Therefore the second line from the top of the column will bear the figure 5, representingthe word Sampson. The number of lines remaining are then counted in rotation in precisely the same order as described for the placing of the first five cards, observing to place the card the subject upon which has been pronounced next in position to the number of the letters in words, and in this manner the completion of the diagram will exhibit the cards and the numbers in ratio in precisely the same position as in the pack in Fig. 1. As soon as the cards have been so placed the dealing of the cards so as to turn the proper card each time as foundin regular order upon the subject-card is next to be found and is the test of the accuracy which has been observed in finding the true combination of the cards on the pack. Begin with taking a card from the upper side of the pack and placing it upon the under side, as before, and as each letter is pronounced in the word Dewey, and having counted five cards so placed the next card following which the player turns face upward must be the one having the subject-name Dewey, which card is laid at one side. Continue the taking of the cards from the upper side of the pack, and as each card is placed on the under side count the letters in the word Schley, and the seventh card, which is turned face upward, must be the one having the subjectname Schley, and so on throughout the pack.

In order to make the subjects a game for several persons each one must prepare an in dividual pack, as before described, and a book can be made of analogous subjects or even subjects which relate one to another in a descriptive character.

In the subjects employed on the cards the rank of each is displayed, as shown, by an insignia opposite each nameas, for instance, the prescribed shoulder-strap or epaulet of an admiral is shown opposite the name Schley and that of major-general after the name Miles,-and thus the interest of the game will be increased in order to show the precedence in which one stands related to another in the class of service to which they severally belong from the symbolic representation of the profession. Instead of the names as given other subjects may be selected-as, for instance, botanical names with the illustrations of botanical plants and with the rank in which the subjects are conceded to surpass the other in medicinal value constituting the quality of the subject-matter treated and the utility of such subjects as may be selected for the cards.

The Value of the puzzle consists in the requirement of a calculation to determine the order in which the cards should be placed in the pack, and thismay be rendered more diflicult in changing the order of subjects upon the subject-card, and thus compelling the player to make the order of cards in the pack a correct one in order to be able to deal out the proper card. A like change in the puzzle accompanies the substitution of a card having a subject-name of a greater or less number of letters than one in the pack or numbers or characters for the letters. When the cards, as above described, are employed in games, the subjects upon cards in one pack would require the prior solution of the puzzle, as above, in order to match the card played by another person having cards selected in subject-matter, as in the common playingcard games, and thus in addition to the skill required to match the cards a different one is presented to solve the card-puzzle.

While card games of well-known publicity, such as the game of authors, contain the symbol or name of the profession, there is no indication in such game of the relative position or rank of persons as theystand related to one another'in the profession, which I seek to make plain by the use of a compound symbol which illustrates the profession and the rank in the comprehensive manner alluded to.

Having fully described my invention, what I now claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A pack of cards each card having a picture of a professional person thereon and the name of said person and a compound symbol upon each card indicating the profession of the person whose picture is displayed upon the card and the rank in which the persons stand related to one another in the profession.

2. In a card puzzle the combination with a series of cards adapted to form a pack and each card in said series having a descriptive name of an object thereon and arranged by rotation in the pack in geometric order according to the number of letters in the names, a list of the descriptive names in their regular order upon a separate card, in conformity with which the cards in the pack are to be dealt in solving the puzzle, and a diagram or key upon another card consisting of a series of marks representing the series of cards in the pack and opposite thereto the ratio numbers of the letters in the descriptive names on the cards in the geometric order in which the names upon the said cards are arranged in the pack, from which ratio numbers the arrangement of the series of cards are obtained in the pack.

MITCl-IEL JOHNSON.

WVitnesses:

JOHN T. MARSHALL, S. J. VAN DORSTON. 

